DDR3 question

[Thunder Horse]

Hi folks. I have a Gigabyte ga-x58-ud3r sli MB and I currently have 3 sticks of Super Talent 2 gb 1600 mhz RAM. I'd like to upgrade this to 4 16 GB sticks of 2000+ mhz RAM. The problem is that the only DDR3 RAM I can find 2000+ comes in 3 x 4 of 2 GB sticks. I can find lower frequency RAM in 4 x 4 sticks. I was wondering why this is. My boards has 4 slots. Also, with it being DDR3, is there any reason I'd want to only use 3 of my slots instead of all 4? Thanks for any clarification.

 

[T_T]

The reason you would want to use only a 3-stick setup is for triple channel configuration. You should also note that occupying all four DIMM slots will often require increased DRAM voltage. This can be dangerous to the CPU, as the i-series CPUs can become damaged at higher voltages than 1.65 V.

 

[Thunder Horse]

So better off with the 12 GB configuration. I doubt any game would use all 12 gigs let alone 16 anyway.

 

[T_T]

That is correct. The only genuine advantage to that much RAM is for tasks such as video rendering, photo editing, CAD, etc. For gaming, 4GB is often enough.